Space blog

The MoonLite development programme, which is part of a proposed UK-led mission to the moon planned for launch as early as 2013, has completed its first three tests at the MoD Pendine test facility managed by Qinetiq with Flying colours. The session comprised the firing of small missile-like probes (named penetrators).

Breaking new ground
The penetrators travelled at 700mph along 300m of the 1,500m test track before hitting a sand target. The speed of impact and the material used were selected to replicate the surface of the moon and simulate the calculate g-force of 10,000g that the penetrators will be required to withstand whilst protecting their valuable analytical payload. See our earlier Space Blog (Shooting for the Moon) for details on the studies leading to this week’s developments for some background on MoonLite and its complement MoonRaker.

More than a missile
Equipment on board MoonLite (which stands for Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecoms Experiment) will carry sophisticated analytical instruments that can be used to explore the Moon’s subsurface. These include a seismometer which will measure “Moonquakes”.

The three penetrators tested at Pendine contained accelerometers, a data acquisition system, a power system and a variety of sensors including a drill mechanism, seismometer and mass spectrometer. The accelerometers recorded data throughout the trial and initial examinations showed that all other sensors survived the impact.

During the proposed mission, the penetrators will be deployed at high-speed by an orbiting spacecraft (MoonRaker) and will embed instruments into the lunar surface on impact. Once deployed, the scientific instruments will send measurements back to Earth, revealing the internal structure of the moon.

Catch the action
A BBC team witnessed the final day of the tests, which included some great video and animated iPlayer footage which can be played online (Missile Practice for Moon mission).

For more information on the background behind the MoonLITE mission, why not tune in to Sir Martin Sweeting’s discussion on the BBC or the BNSC.

Students from all over Britain have taken part in the BNSC’s “Space Experiment Competition”, the brainchild of SSTL’s very own Dr. Stuart Eves. From a sea of hopeful entrants, the judges have now whittled down the contestants to 6 finalists. The remaining students are from St George’s College Addlestone, Helston Community College, Langton Star Centre, Schome Park Project, Shrewsbury School and UKHAS.

The ambitious experiments will study a variety of space exploration issues, ranging from how to stop Near-Earth space dust damaging space craft to minimising the affect of electrically charged particles on space communication. In the race to outdo each other the students have come up with some really innovative ideas, including proposing ways to measure the resistance of bacteria in space and even measuring the number of meteors entering the atmosphere. So if you’re a budding physicist or engineer or are just interested in space, get yourself to the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) congress in Glasgow where the winning proposal will be announced in October 2008.

Minister for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson today visited SSTL’s headquarters in Guildford to discuss the company’s important contribution to the UK space industry. His visit follows the release of the UK Civil Space Strategy on February 14th, which outlines the Government's future direction for the sector for 2008-2012.

Mr Pearson visited SSTL operations critical to supporting the Government’s space objectives. This included an introduction to SSTL’s DMCii Ltd subsidiary, where he met the team that are currently leading the International Charter: Space and major disasters on behalf of the BNSC. He also met project managers from the European Space Agency (ESA) missions such as the highly successful Galileo satellite, GIOVE-A, and discussed the role of small satellites in providing security and military capabilities.

Speaking at SSTL, Minister for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson, said:

"The UK Civil Space Strategy outlined the Government's commitment to the UK space industry and measures to ensure UK businesses increase their share of the growing international sector. As I've seen today some of the most innovative work in this area is being carried out right here in Surrey."

The highlight of Mr Pearson’s visit was the presentation of plans that will secure the UK’s closer involvement in international initiatives on the future shape of space exploration to the Moon, Mars and beyond. SSTL will take the lead on landmark missions to prove new technologies that will provide low cost infrastructure for future lunar missions. These could include the provision of communications from the Moon back to Earth. This British-supplied infrastructure could also be used to relay communications back from interplanetary missions, for example Mars to Earth.

Sir Martin Sweeting, SSTL Group Executive Chairman, commented,

“SSTL is pioneering innovative low cost technologies that maintain and develop the UK’s market share in the global space sector. In particular, SSTL’s MoonLite and MoonRaker missions with NASA are of great importance to the British government’s space strategy going forward.”

In time, a constellation of satellites could also be built up to provide valuable services such as GPS in the same way as the Earth. This satellite infrastructure will provide essential services to the international missions on the Moon’s surface such as Rovers, Landers and smaller space experiments that are planned by nations such as Russia, China, India and the US over the coming years.

BNSC and SSTL are offering UK schools the chance to fly an experiment on one of the small satellites built by SSTL. Any UK students, either individuals or teams, aged between 14 and 18 can enter their experimental package. Speaking about the Space Experiment on the BBC news website today Brainchild Dr Stuart Eves (SSTL) :

Satellites affect everyone on the planet. They deliver telephone communications and TV programmes across the globe, enable the safe navigation of ships and aircraft and provide the timing signals that are used to coordinate the national power grid and mobile phone calls.

The BNSC's Dr Ian Gibson also commented in the BBC report, expressing the essence of the Space Experiment.

This hands-on competition should be fun as well as educational

To hear more you can also tune in to the Today Programme on Radio 4. Use the "Listen Again" function for this morning (Thursday 13th December) and search around 6:55 am.

The winning experiment can weigh up to 1kg and will have a development budget of up to £100,000. The deadline for receiving initial proposals is 28th February 2008, so get your skates on!

BNSC and SSTL hope that the competition will stimulate interest in Space, with many entrants. Out of the hopefuls, six finalists will be announced at the UK Space Conference at Charterhouse in March 2008 and invited to submit more detailed proposals for consideration.

The winners will be announced at the IAF Congress in Glasgow in October 2008 and the winning experiment will be integrated onto an SSTL mission due to fly in the 2010 timeframe.

The experiment could aim to measure some aspect of the space environment, investigate some aspect of the Earth, or test a new satellite technology in Low Earth Orbit What to include in an initial proposal (of up to 5 pages):

• The purpose of the experiment you would like to fly.
  
• What data you would expect to collect.
  
• How you would use the data collected.
  
• How your experiment would advance space science or technology.
  

For full details visit the Space Experiment website: www.spaceexperiment.info